Cuíto, formerly known as Silva Porto, is a city and municipality in central Angola, capital of Bié Province. The municipality had a population of 450,881 in 2014.
History
The city of Cuíto is built in the historical heart of the
Ovimbundu kingdom. The ruler of the
Ovimbundu was named Viye and he married a Songo woman named Cahanda. Together they built the city and later the Portuguese would name the Bié Province after the ruler.
[T. Ernest Wilson, Angola Beloved p. 32.] The
Ovimbundu were known for selling captives from neighbouring tribes to the European slave traders which made the area an ideal location for the slave business and brought colonists to the area. The Portuguese "founded" the city in 1750.
[John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution vol I (1950-1962): The Anatomy of an Explosion. p. 102n.] They later called it Silva Porto after António da Silva Porto who built his home
embala Belmonte in the area.
[Henry W. Nevison. A Modern Slavery p. 84.] The pleasant climate in the Bié Province was attractive to Portuguese settlers and many made their home in Silva Porto in the early 1900s when the
Benguela Railway connected the city to the coast.
Cuíto had a long history of violence starting with the African slave trade and tribal warfare. Later in the 1960s the Portuguese used the town of Silva Porto as a training centre for training black Portuguese Army soldiers to send to Northern Portuguese Angola in order to fight the nationalist , during the Portuguese Colonial War.
After independence from Portugal in 1975, Cuíto saw its worst times on 6 January 1993 when UNITA, during the Angolan Civil War, laid siege of the city for over 9 months and over 30,000 people were killed, both from war effects and starvation. Nobody was permitted to enter or leave the city for 9 months and the city suffered heavy damage. UNITA was eventually driven from Cuíto and a second attempt was made to capture the city in 1998 using huge artillery and tanks.[Martin James, Historical Dictionary of Angola]
Climate
The town sits on the eastern flank of the Bie Plateau. Due to its elevation, the climate is unusually cool for its tropical location with an average annual temperature is 18 °C. The coolest period is May to August when almost no rain falls. September and October are the hottest months with a little rain. Heavy rain falls in the main rainy season November to April.
Transportation
Cuíto is served by the
Benguela railway that once connected the inland provinces to the coast. The actual railway station serving Cuíto is located a few kilometers north of the town. The railway is expected to be repaired in the next few years. There are also direct flights from Luanda out of the Joaquim Kapango Airport.
See also
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Railway stations in Angola
Notes and references
